CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
The CTO will be a member of the extended executive management team (CEO, CFO, COO, CTO), responsible for technology, engineering leadership, architecture, delivery capability, quality, scalability and technical readiness for international growth.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Autobahn Technologies is an Estonia-headquartered B2B SaaS company building a Vehicle Sales Platform (VSP) for the automotive industry. The platform connects OEMs, national sales companies, importers, dealers and buyers across the vehicle sales lifecycle: offers, orders, deliveries, handover, logistics and aftersales workflows. Autobahn is currently active in Finland, the Baltics, Poland, Czech, Slovakia and the Balkans.
You can learn more about us at autobahn.tech or follow us in Linkedin.
Our team currently consists of 24 enthusiastic and ambitious engineers and professionals in their respective fields.
We have entered a new, fast-growth phase. Autobahn has processed more than EUR 2B in vehicle transactions through the platform, enabled 500,000+ vehicle offers, and reports 99.9% data accuracy. The company´s sales grew 68% YoY.
We are currently looking for a key person to join our leadership team and help implement this growth effectively and sustainably. Join us
ROLE DESCRIPTION
The CTO will be a member of the extended executive management team (CEO, CFO, COO, CTO), responsible for technology, engineering leadership, architecture, delivery capability, quality, scalability and technical readiness for international growth. He/she will lead our engineering and technology organisation – the current setup includes an in-house engineering team of 6 people and 5 outsourced developers. The CTO is expected to design the technology organisation and grow the team for the next stage of fast-growth.The CEO will remain responsible for business leadership, the COO for operations, and the CFO for finance and legal matters. The CTO is expected to work closely with all three and communicate with all the relevant counterparties on technology, scalability and risk when required.
This is a hands-on executive role (we don´t expect our CTO to code) with a broader strategic scope, with end-to-end responsibility across technology, engineering, architecture, platform development, quality assurance and technical strategies.
The company needs a product-minded technical leader who can stay close to architecture and delivery while building the engineering operating model for international scale. CTO is also expected to define and execute AI strategy for Autobahn. The immediate mandate is not generic innovation rhetoric; it is to improve quality and reliability, make delivery more predictable, strengthen productisation, modernise legacy elements, and build the integration architecture required by larger importer groups and international customers.
KEY FOCUS AREAS
Near-Term Focus: Operational Stabilization & Governance
Establish Cross-Functional Delivery Boundaries: Partner with the COO to clearly delineate the boundaries between day-to-day operations and engineering delivery. Design an engineering-led governance structure for technical decision-making and product execution, including improving planning, delivery predictability and QA related issues.
Stabilise Platform Quality & Reliability: Lead continuous improvement of platform quality, release discipline, engineering standards and technical governance. Reduce recurring defects, implement robust test automation to stabilize the core B2B SaaS platform.
Establish Technical Board Cadence: Design the technical improvement roadmap to ensure the performance, security and scalability of the platform. On a regular basis keeping investors, board members, key stakeholders updated and aligned on platform development, stability and quality, engineering capacity and the platform related outlook for the upcoming quarters or sprints or iterations.
Building AI strategy for Autobahn not only as an internal development or productivity tool but as a competitive differentiator for Autobahn’s Vehicle Sales Platform (continues to Mid-Term time horizont).
Mid-Term Focus: Scaling & Integration Architecture
Design Enterprise Integration & API Architecture: Lead the architectural design for enterprise automotive customer requirements. Build high-reliability connections for complex data flows, including OEM factory production feeds, ERP/DMS systems, CRM, logistics, and embedded webshop engines.
Execute the Productisation Roadmap: Bridge the gap between engineering and the product management teams by co-owning the transition from customer-specific bespoke development to a highly configurable, scalable product model.
Scale the Engineering Organisation: Transition the team into a sustainable, modern engineering organization. Design and execute hiring and outsourcing strategies and activities to grow the capabilities of the team to support the growth of the company.
WE OFFER
- Self-fulfilment in a rapidly growing global business
- Opportunity to work in a dynamic team that values initiative and good ideas, where decisions are made quickly and locally
- Collaboration with inspiring professionals in their field
- Opportunity to participate in the employee option programme
REQUIREMENTS
- Higher education or equivalent professional depth 8+ years in software engineering and technology leadership
- Recent experience as CTO, VP Engineering, Head of Engineering or equivalent in a B2B SaaS, platform or product company
- Proven ability to scale engineering teams and improve delivery quality in a high-growth environment
- Strong hands-on software development and architecture background
- Understanding of PHP, PostgreSQL and Angular environments (major advantage); solid understanding of AWS cloud architecture, DevOps, CI/CD, observability, test automation, security, performance and scalable SaaS architecture, knowledge and experience about practical AI adoption
- Proven experience designing API-first, integration-heavy platforms with complex data flows, external systems, enterprise customers and high reliability requirements
- Experience building, mentoring and leading engineering teams; ability to create operating cadence, prioritisation discipline, technical standards and a healthy performance culture in a flat, fast-moving organisation
- Ability to understand the commercial logic of a B2B SaaS product, balance customer delivery with product roadmap priorities, and contribute as a member of the executive team
- Experience with Jira, Confluence or other comparable engineering management and deployment tools is useful (ability to assess and improve the existing toolchain is more important than exact tool familiarity)
- Practical familiarity with AI-assisted development, internal automation, data products and business intelligence is an advantage
GOOD TO HAVE
- Experience with international SaaS expansion, automotive or complex B2B workflow platforms, business intelligence products, legacy modernisation, and corporate or scale-up environments where systems and organisational capability had to be built deliberately.
Adera Executive Search is acting as an executive search partner for Autobahn Technology in this assignment.
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Could you please send your CV and motivation letter in English by July 27 via our website, or send them directly to Alo Naelapea at alo.naelapea@aderaexecutive.com.
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